Milk.

Today I bought a glass quart of milk at the Farmer’s Market from the people from Ronny Brook and I realized how long it has been since I have bought real milk for my house.  I don’t drink much milk and when I put something in my coffee it tends to be soy because I find it sweet in addition to milky.  This morning I wanted some granola with milk, not yogurt as usual.  I was about to buy some Silk Soy Milk (the largest, most widely available soy milk provider in the US) when something stopped me.  I found that more important than the health and flavor of soy milk is the source of my food.  So yes, being a cheesemonger I probably consume quite enough dairy but reading more and more about soy just makes me feel uncomfortable about eating the popular bean.  Soy is rarely produced on a small scale; it is produced on the same agribusiness fields as corn and other highly subsidized crops.  In addition because there is such a high demand for soy products in the US beans are often imported from South America or even Africa.  So yes, less energy is used in the actual growing and cultivating of soy in comparison to the much longer production chain for cows but when it is being shipped around the world it becomes difficult to say.
When presented with the two creamers for my coffee or liquid for my milk I think it will still have to be circumstantial.  Drinking cow’s milk from an unknown source frankly for me is just gross.  So for my coffee from the corner store I will get some soy, but when I am home and able to buy my milk from the farmer I think I am back on real dairy.  I would rather support a small farmer upstate than a giant anonymous agribusiness that can’t be traced and possible connected to some sort of bio-fuel. (A)

Consider Bardwell Farm at the Williamsburg Greenmarket

Feeling a bit tired on Saturday morning and dreading the journey to an ever crowed Union Square Market I decided to make due with my much smaller neighborhood Greenmarket.  Mostly I  just needed some greens, some beef and a few yogurts and as usual I ended up leaving with much more.  The funny thing is is that I always walk away with whatever looks best that day, even if I don’t know how to cook it.  Except for the pound and a half of rhubarb I am still ruminating over (any ideas?) I think I will be fine.

Maybe one would think because I am a cheesemonger I wouldn’t need to buy more cheese from other sources but who can say no to the cheesemakers themselves.  Chris, from Consider Bardwell Farm in West Pawlet Vermont was at the stand with a few cheeses I had never tried before.  They were pretty busy but I did get a chance to talk with them for a few minutes.  They are still a bit short on goat’s milk cheeses but they will be ready soon- so naturally I went for the cow’s milk varieties.  I have a weakness for alpine cheese- there is something simple and hearty about them that cannot be disputed.  That being said I bought some cheese they call Rupert and sat in the park with a loaf of bread and a hot coffee.  Tangier and less sweet than a Swiss Gruyere the Rupert made a perfect Comte’ like breakfast cheese.  I would have liked it to be a bit more aged in order to get that extra crunchy texture, but I am sure there are some older wheels out there.  It is an easy cheese, something for the summer that you don’t have to think about too much.  It goes equally well with an orange juice as with a hoppy lager.  There were definitely some fruitier notes in there, especially in the mild aroma.  I bet it tastes great with raspberries too.  I will have to try that.  (A)

Cato Corner’s Local Cheese

Standing in a ninety degree room with your back bent over the side of a six by four foot vat and raking through pound upon pound of unpasturized milk my not seem like an ideal weekend away from the city, but then again, it just might. The kind people of Cato Corner Farm in Colchester, Connecticut were kind enough to let me have a hand at cheese making. The farm is located in southeastern Connecticut, a ten minute drive or so from the shores of New London. The farm is also about ten minutes from where I spent most of my childhood and hanging around with the animals there and working on the cheese made me realize that this is the cheese that comes from my land. Cheese, like wine, has a distinctive element of terroir to it and if there should be one cheese and one cheese alone for me to eat, this stuff would probably be it. Traditionally terroir has had something to do with the make-up of a people who eat the particular food, tastes that are genetically embedded are passed down through generations according to what is available given the land and the climate. In America this is certainly an altered concept that seems to be coming back into fashion.
Essentially eating locally is about eating the food you were always meant to eat given your particular environment. I consider it to be the “honey principle”- for me it began there. In honey we can find the easiest and most natural way to alleviate allergies, the local honey contains small amounts the very pollen that is causing all of your sneezing. The honey reflects the possibility of a symbiotic relationship with our food sources. If we eat what are meant to eat there is a good chance we will have less problems with our physical health.
To come out and say these things, is for me, something of a breakthrough. There was a definite phase during the blur of my undergraduate years when I took the word “natural” to have those strong quotation marks surrounding it. I am not at all ready to give up these quotation marks completely, but in terms of my food, I think I am ready to cross over -to natural. Not only does the cheese in Connecticut reflect the entire ecosystem that surrounds it but it tastes good and feels nutritious.
It has taken us a while to reach this point in America perhaps because high-brow food culture is only now becoming comfortable with true American cuisine. There is no need to desperately turn to the Continent in search of something equally decadent and high quality. Cato Corner Farm produces cheeses of varied styles which in turn reflect American food culture. As a friend pointed out to me one evening over Chinese food, where else in the world can we eat with chopsticks and think nothing of it. We change and rearrange our eating habits constantly in America, our food traditions are innumerable. What remains and what we must hold strong to is the quality. And if we are taking from many traditions we must also remain true to each of those respective traditions; we have our work cut out for us.
So standing there, with my hands is scaldingly hot milk made a lot of sense for my health. Those particular cows have spent their lives amidst the same vegetation and air that I have, we have inhaled the same salty breezes and probably eaten some of the same dirt. The nutrition they can provide me with is already aligned with my body’s regular patterns. I will still enjoy eating all kinds of imported cheese, but now nothing will feel as (“?”) Natural as the milk with which I have shared a geographical lineage. (A)

Westcombe Comes to NYC

Last week I was very surprised to meet two makers of England’s Westcombe Cheddar.  Tom Calver and his father were visiting New York’s specialty cheese stores before heading up to Vermont to Jasper Hill Farm.  When they introduced themselves, I was a little embarrassed because I’ve never tried Westcombe Cheddar.  They were so friendly, they didn’t hold it against me.  

Our store stocks Montgomery’s and Keen’s Cheddar and a cheddar like cheese called Lincolnshire Poacher.  Tom describes his cheese as in between the rounded, meatiness of Monty’s and the grassy earthiness of Keen’s.  Tom told us that he had brought some cheese with him and offered us a taste.  Of course we said yes and he pulled out a giant hunk of his family’s Caerphilly.  As we smelled the rind he told us about the cave they built with a stream running through it.  The furry gray mold smelled so mushroomy and clean, it was like we were standing in the cave.  The mold must love all that humidity!  They cheese was beautifully creamy and earthy.  Then the bad news: Tom said that they never make enough of their Caerphilly to export it.  Utter torture!  He did ask us to come to Somerset to make cheese for a couple days.  I wish I could just pack up and join them.          

Actually, I wish I could join them just in going up to Jasper Hill.  The Calver’s told me that they were especially interested in seeing the robots that turn the wheels of cheddar.  I guess they want to expand their own caves.  Jasper Hill is currently building a huge complex of caves, eight, I think.  (E)